Hawks, Noble pinned down by snowstorm; Class A meet moved to Sanford on Feb. 16

Saturday

Feb 9, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By Mike Whaleymwhaley@fosters.com

DOVER — The Marshwood and Noble high school wrestling teams, fresh off a 1-2 finish at the Western Maine Class A championship, feel very good heading into the Class A championship.

Unfortunately, they’ll both have an extra week to try and keep that momentum going.

The area’s big snowstorm, which started Friday, postponed the Maine wrestling championships scheduled for today at the Augusta Civic Center. Now the championships will take place Feb. 16 at three different sites. Class A will be held at Sanford High School.

“It’s a little bit of a letdown for our seniors,” said Marshwood coach Matt Rix, whose team defended its regional title last Saturday in South Berwick and now looks to defend its state title. “You want to go to the Civic Center and see the other classes wrestle. We were hoping they’d postpone it to Monday, but that didn’t happen.”

Marshwood qualified 12 wrestlers for the state meet, as did rival Noble, which bounced back from a disappointing 2011-12 season to finish second to the Hawks with 197 points last Saturday.

“We did well,” said veteran Noble coach Kip DeVoll. “We could have done a little bit better. We stayed with Marshwood at the beginning, but their depth overpowered us at the end.”

Bill Gagner (113) and Jacob Guimond (195) won regional titles for the Knights, which received a pleasant supportive jolt from its freshman and sophomore wrestlers.

“It was their first regional, that’s the biggest thing, and they had some big wins,” DeVoll said. “That was the biggest surprise for us. That’s going to help them and us down the road.”

That young group picked up two seconds with Otto Keisker (145) and Robert Worell (220), and three fourths from Devin Bourque (126), Zac Schluntz (170) and Jacob Zenga (285).

While Marshwood and Noble will have the largest contingent next Saturday with 12 wrestlers each, Eastern Maine champ Skowhegan is right behind them with 11, and Massabesic, which was third at the Western regional, will send eight.

Marshwood and Noble saw Skowhegan at the Noble Invitational at the end of December. Marshwood won that meet with 244.5. Noble (201) was second, followed by Massabesic (178) and Skowhegan (174.5).

“We feel like we did what we needed to do to set ourselves up for (next) weekend,” Rix said.

Marshwood and Noble wrestled head to head in three championship finals and two consolation finals.

“Marshwood is the frontrunner,” DeVoll added. “We’ll have to wrestle our best. This time of year you have to, but we’ll be chasing them.”

The weather means another week to prepare, which Rix says is a good and bad thing.

“You get an extra week, but you have to keep the motivation up and you have to make weight another week,” he said. “The biggest thing is staying mentally up. This is the second time I’ve seen this. I think they canceled the meet in 1992 or 1993 when it was up in Madawaska/Fort Kent.

“It’s good for us, too, because we’re battling some colds,” Rix added.

The Class B championship will take place at Fryeburg Academy and Class C at Foxcroft Academy. The top three Maine wrestlers in each weight class will advance to the New England Regional tournament on March 1-2 in Providence, R.I.